The Democrats always position themselves as the champions of the poor and downtrodden, but a new report concludes that no one will be hurt worse by President Obama’s climate plans than America’s low-income population. The report, produced by the Manhattan Institute on Thursday, predicts that the president’s Clean Power Plan will raise the cost of living for the poorest American families by $19 billion per year. Comparatively, the nation’s richest households will only see their living costs go up by 4%.

The disparity is not in hard numbers so much as it is in percentages of income. According to the report, the highest-income families in the country spend less than 3% of their income on energy. The country’s poorest American households, on the other hand, spend approximately 35% of their income on energy. Therefore, any nationwide increase in the cost of fuel, air conditioning, heat, and other forms of electricity will disproportionately affect America’s poor.

What a wonderful way for the Democrats to show their gratitude to low-income America! Once again, the party that promises to help the underprivileged has failed.

Of course, it won’t just be the poor who suffer under these climate initiatives. The report looks at the richest and poorest Americans, but the middle class can scarcely afford a tax hike right now – even one that masquerades as something else. When gas prices start to soar, travel grinds to a halt. This effects the tourism industry, the airline industry, and a million other niche businesses along the way. Anything that puts the economy in handcuffs will have wide-ranging repercussions all the way up and down the class scale. Every time.

And for what? Even the most wild-eyed environmental zealots admit that the EPA’s Clean Power Plan will have very little impact on global warming. The same goes for the Paris Agreement. All of the so-called environmental experts say that these represent just a small step towards the actions we really ought to be taking. They all say that we won’t accomplish much if we stop here.

So that’s where we’re at. We’re going to destroy the economy, put the nail in the coffin of American manufacturing and industry, and kill off the fossil fuel sector just so we can go back to the drawing board and say, “Ok, that didn’t work, what’s next?” We must be the first nation in history to intentionally corrupt our own economy. Good job, Washington.